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Highland Park Dragon Legend

Whisky Review

What they say

Background

In DRAGON LEGEND – the richer and smokier side of Highland Park – we celebrate the stories of the Vikings who ruled our Orkney island home for over 600 years and whose virtues of courage and perseverance we uphold today.

STORY

For our ancestors, dragons were both feared and revered, possessing mystical powers but representing the forces of evil. According to legend, the Viking warrior Sigurd killed the evil serpent dragon Fafnir in a battle of great bravery and cunning. Licking the dragon’s blood from his thumb, Sigurd was granted powerful gifts of prophecy and wisdom and became one of the greatest heroes of the ancient Nordic sagas.

In DRAGON LEGEND we’ve created single malt as bold and unconventional as Sigurd himself. Our local peat from Hobbister Moor delivers an intense aromatic smokiness that’s melded with a spicy sweetness from long, slow maturation in
sherry seasoned oak casks.

…the earth shook all about him, and he snorted forth venom on all the way before him as he went; but Sigurd neither trembled nor was afraid at the roaring of him.
The Volsunga Saga

My tasting notes:

Nose: Sweet and peat but with a faint hint of rubber too, floral, heather honey, rich malt seasoned with candied peel and a good dollop of vanilla, smoked and salted almonds, sweet ashen peat with a touch of heather brush fire and parma violets

Taste: Sweet again on the palate, a wave of vanilla and candied lemon and orange peel, heather honey, fades into a gentle ashen peat and some malty barley, sandalwood, and occasionally some darker and more bitter suggestions of chocolate coated coffee-beans and smoked almonds, very occasionally that hint of dry rubber returns